Comments

I do like one dance party night a month with mostly LPs and CDs. I still buy 12"s of new stuff when I can find decent club bangers (which seems like it's a bit dry as of the last few months, for fresh stuff). I am by no means making a living at it, however. If I was I would no doubt invest in Serato.

I haven't been to a DJ event in the last year, excluding rare groove nights, where people are actually playing records.

agreed. if i see a dj playing vinyl at a mainstream party, than i assume he doesn't dj too often or is just too lazy to make the transition to digital. i can't think of one reason why you would buy the 12" of chris brown's "run it". if you disagree, please pm me so i can sell you about 3,000 mainstream hip-hop/r&b records that i have collecting dust.

dude's who are hanging on to some sort of vinyl integrity, need to move on or get left in the dust. I still buy records, but not disposable club shit that will be obsolete in 3 months. If it makes you feel better, just think of the environmental benefit.

dude's who are hanging on to some sort of vinyl integrity, need to move on or get left in the dust. I still buy records, but not disposable club shit that will be obsolete in 3 months. If it makes you feel better, just think of the environmental benefit.

I prefer to buy ALL music I'm interested in on vinyl- club banger or no

I don't buy records that I don't personally enjoy (I'm not a 'club banger' kinda deejay) so thats not an issue for me at all

Oh yes, this would be the crowd I usually play for. My dinosaur ass still uses vinyl while ALL of my compadres use serato. I really hate serato but can't argue of the sense it makes and portable etc. I will be going to serato at some point but can't say when. until then I'm hauling and still buying vinyl. I really honestly hate seeing a laptop next to the turntables.

So I, along with apparently, most of the male hipster + hip-hop crowd in SF ended up at the Stonesthrow show on Friday night. It turned into a Dilla Tribute Night which was fine by me since I really wasn't try to see Madlib's new 8 piece band (but hey, who knows, maybe they would have been fire). All the DJs were spinning off of Serato, including J. Rocc which says to me:

1) Dildo can't be that bad if folks like J. Rocc and Triple Threat use it but...

2) It really comes down to how you flip it. Koushik was using Serato but he was playing songs all the way out and generally looked hella lethargic on stage, starting at a computer screen and then, at times, cueing up the next record - oops, sound file - on the laptop. Had he shown more energy and verve, maybe spinning off Serato wouldn't have looked so tepid but really, he could have been using an iPod up there and it the show would have been EXACTLY the same.

3) In contrast, Peanut Butter Wolf was doing small tricks like doubling up but what was weird - and Shane aka Sharpshooter - pointed this out to me was that Wolf was flipping back and forth doubles by looking at the laptop screen rather than listening to the records: he wasn't even using his headphones. Now, sure, when you're mixing with WAV files, you can look at the waveform and figure out where tracks start, where the snares are, etc. etc. but in general, it means you're using your eyes and not your ears to DJ and that was weird to watch. I don't know if I'm doing justice to explaining this right but it's like the turntables became an extension of the computer and not the other way around, which is what I think Serato should ultimately be. But when you're going back and forth on two turntables and using a laptop screen to guide you, the whole endeavour just seems hella strange. believe me, from the audience point of view, it was weird to witness.

4) J.Rocc did it up right: he spent most of his time on the tables actually rocking the tables and just turning to his computer when he needed a new song (which was frequently).

2) It really comes down to how you flip it. Koushik was using Serato but he was playing songs all the way out and generally looked hella lethargic on stage, starting at a computer screen and then, at times, cueing up the next record - oops, sound file - on the laptop. Had he shown more energy and verve, maybe spinning off Serato wouldn't have looked so tepid but really, he could have been using an iPod up there and it the show would have been EXACTLY the same.

2) It really comes down to how you flip it. Koushik was using Serato but he was playing songs all the way out and generally looked hella lethargic on stage, starting at a computer screen and then, at times, cueing up the next record - oops, sound file - on the laptop. Had he shown more energy and verve, maybe spinning off Serato wouldn't have looked so tepid but really, he could have been using an iPod up there and it the show would have been EXACTLY the same.

2) It really comes down to how you flip it. Koushik was using Serato but he was playing songs all the way out and generally looked hella lethargic on stage, starting at a computer screen and then, at times, cueing up the next record - oops, sound file - on the laptop. Had he shown more energy and verve, maybe spinning off Serato wouldn't have looked so tepid but really, he could have been using an iPod up there and it the show would have been EXACTLY the same.

3) In contrast, Peanut Butter Wolf was doing small tricks like doubling up but what was weird - and Shane aka Sharpshooter - pointed this out to me was that Wolf was flipping back and forth doubles by looking at the laptop screen rather than listening to the records: he wasn't even using his headphones. Now, sure, when you're mixing with WAV files, you can look at the waveform and figure out where tracks start, where the snares are, etc. etc. but in general, it means you're using your eyes and not your ears to DJ and that was weird to watch. I don't know if I'm doing justice to explaining this right but it's like the turntables became an extension of the computer and not the other way around, which is what I think Serato should ultimately be. But when you're going back and forth on two turntables and using a laptop screen to guide you, the whole endeavour just seems hella strange. believe me, from the audience point of view, it was weird to witness.

Might be weird to look at, but its not any different than putting cue point stickers on vinyl to accomplish the same thing (eyes v. ears).

If you have accurate bpm tags on your mp3s, you can easily get away with not using headphones for most of the night. Your set might even sound better since you are relying on the monitor speaker and not a combo of your headphones and the monitor.

well if you are rocking doubles you marked and know the record, youa re using your eyes more than ears anyway, so to me that is not a big deal.

One thing I have noticed however, is that the new DJs starting out, don't buy serato. Its too big of an investment (turntables, mixer, laptop, serato)... So they start by buying records. Also you all are ignoring alot of DJs that are not so well off, will still rock records. The cost factor outside of middle/upper class DJs is still too high for alot of DJs to get into Serato. Not saying that won't change, but I don't see it changing for a good 3-4 years and that is really only if laptops become more affordable.

Also there are alot of DJs still buying the new singles to get all the versions. The difference is they are not buying doubles, just 1 to rip.

I hear you guys but you just needed to see it. I'm probably making a very minor point but when a DJ is spending more than half his time staring at a computer vs. 1) at his records, 2) rooting in his crates, 3) checking the crowd for reaction, etc. it does begin to feel very removed. For anyone who's ever suffered through a glitch-hop performance made off a laptop, this wasn't quite as bad, but it tended to lean more towards that end of the spectrum.

And mind you, I JUST BOUGHT SERATO and I think, as a tool, it's fucking fantastic. I totally understand why Djs take it on the road with them. But as a DJ, I do think it requires that you remember to still do what you've always done as a DJ and just use Serato to supplement.

2) It really comes down to how you flip it. Koushik was using Serato but he was playing songs all the way out and generally looked hella lethargic on stage, starting at a computer screen and then, at times, cueing up the next record - oops, sound file - on the laptop. Had he shown more energy and verve, maybe spinning off Serato wouldn't have looked so tepid but really, he could have been using an iPod up there and it the show would have been EXACTLY the same.

I've seen dj's spinning wax who looked lethargic; I think poor stage presence/lack of energy will make any kind of performance tedious to watch.

I hear you guys but you just needed to see it. I'm probably making a very minor point but when a DJ is spending more than half his time staring at a computer vs. 1) at his records, 2) rooting in his crates, 3) checking the crowd for reaction, etc. it does begin to feel very removed.

i agree that the visual perception of the dj has taken a step down with serato. it looks corny when you move away from the tables and start scrolling through your laptop...and even worse when you start using the keyboard to search for songs.

that being said....99% of the people you are djing for do not understand what your laptop is for and think that you are either a) looking at your "playlist" , b) monitoring the sound levels or c) surfing the internet.

I will say this. Mixmaster Mike used Serato at our Party in Vegas, and he 100% ripped shit up to the point of not even being able to tell what he was using, aside from his laptop on the stage. It all depends on how you DJ with it I guess.

I dj a few times a week (sometimes) and I still use vinyl. Not saying I'm a # 1 stunner dj drinking champagne out of some model's stillettos but I ain't exactly un-familiar with "the club" and "rocking it"

but I see it changing real soon. Shit, I'm thinking of getting just for my Japan trip which will save me the hassel of sending 'em over and paying a few hundred dollars (that's what I heard) for handling..

In relative mode, there's no markers or "clock" that you can read on the control vinyl itself so if you "get lost" where you're at you can look at the screen to get back on track. I practice NOT looking at the screen when doing doubles, the people that are stuck on the screen can be "cheating" too looking at the waveforms to match beats. It depends.

Doubles in relative mode take a while to get used to, so at first purchase, looking at the screen is kinda a necessity.

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